'  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden  and 
I  will  give  you  rest " 


PAX 
VOBISCUM 


BY 
HENRY  DRUMMOND,  F.R.S.E.,  F.G.S.,  LL.D. 

Author  of  "Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World" 
"Tropical  Africa,"  Etc. 


NEW  YORK:  JAMES  POTT 
AND  COMPANY  j»  *  MCM 


COPYRIGHT,  1893,  BY 
JAMES  POTT  &  CO. 


UliJK  AM  I 

UNArERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  BARBARA 


"  PAX  VOBISCUM,"  prepared  for  publication  by  the  Au- 
thor, is  now  published  for  the  first  time,  being  the  second 
of  a  series  of  which  "  The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World  " 
was  the  first. 

JAMES  POTT  &  Co. 
Nov.  i,  1890. 


"  COME  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I 
will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of  me ;  for 
I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart :  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  youi 
souls.  For  my  yoke  is  easy,  and  my  burden  is  light." 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

PREFACE, 3 

PAX  VOBISCUM,         .         .         .         .                 .  9 

EFFECTS  REQUIRE  CAUSES,  .  .  .  .12 
WHAT  YOKES  ARE  FOR,  .  ...  .  23 
How  FRUITS  GROW, «j 


PAX  VOBISCUM. 

I  HEARD  the  other  morning  a  sermon  by  a  distinguished 
preacher  upon  "  Rest."  It  was  full  of  beautiful  thoughts ; 
but  when  I  came  to  ask  myself,  •"  How  does  he  say  I  can 
get  Rest?  "  there  was  no  answer.  The  sermon  was  sin- 
cerely meant  to  be  practical,  yet  it  contained  no  experi- 
ence that  seemed  to  me  to  be  tangible,  nor  any  advice 
which  could  help  me  to  find  the  thing  itself  as  I  went 
about  the  world  that  afternoon.  Yet  this  omission  of  the 
only  important  problem  was  not  the  fault  of  the  preacher. 
The  whole  popular  religion  is  in  the  twilight  here.  And 
when  pressed  for  really  working  specifics  for  the  experi- 
ences with  which  it  deals,  it  falters,  and  seems  to  lose 
itself  in  mist. 

The  want  of  connection  between  the  great  words  of 
religion  and  every-day  life  has  bewildered  and  discour- 
aged all  of  us.  Christianity  possesses  the  noblest  words 
in  the  language ;  its  literature  overflows  with  terms  ex- 
pressive of  the  greatest  and  happiest  moods  which  can 
fill  the  soul  of  man.  Rest,  Joy,  Peace,  Faith,  Love, 
Light — these  words  occur  with  such  persistency  in  hymns 
and  prayers  that  an  observer  might  think  they  formed 
the  staple  of  Christian  experience.  But  on  coming  to 
close  quarters  with  the  actual  life  of  most  of  us,  how 
surely  would  he  be  disenchanted.  I  do  not  think  we 
ourselves  are  aware  how  much  our  religious  life  is  made 
up  of  phrases ;  how  much  of  what  we  call  Christian  ex- 


10  PAX    VOBISCUM. 

perience  is  only  a  dialect  of  the  Churches,  a  mere  relig- 
ious phraseology  with  almost  nothing  behind  it  in  what 
we  really  feel  and  know. 

To  some  of  us,  indeed,  the  Christian  experiences  seem 
further  away  than  when  we  took  the  first  steps  in  the 
Christian  life.  That  life  has  not  opened  out  as  we  had 
hoped ;  we  do  not  regret  our  religion,  but  we  are  disap- 
pointed with  it.  There  are  times,  perhaps,  when  wander- 
ing notes  from  a  diviner  music  stray  into  our  spirits ;  but 
these  experiences  come  at  few  and  fitful  moments.  We 
have  no  sense  of  possession  in  them.  When  they  visit 
us,  it  is  a  surprise.  When  they  leave  us,  it  is  without  ex- 
planation. When  we  wish  their  return,  we  do  not  know 
how  to  secure  it. 

All  which  points  to  a  religion  without  solid  base,  and 
a  poor  and  flickering  life.  It  means  a  great  bankruptcy 
in  those  experiences  which  give  Christianity  its  personal 
solace  and  make  it  attractive  to  the  world,  and  a  great 
uncertainty  as  to  any  remedy.  It  is  as  if  we  knew  every- 
thing about  health — except  the  way  to  get  it. 

I  am  quite  sure  that  the  difficulty  does  not  lie  in  the 
fact  that  men  are  not  in  earnest.  This  is  simply  not  the 
fact.  All  around  us  Christians  are  wearing  themselves 
out  in  trying  to  be  better.  The  amount  of  spiritual  long- 
ing in  the  world — in  the  hearts  of  unnumbered  thousands 
of  men  and  women  in  whom  we  should  never  suspect  it ; 
among  the  wise  and  thoughtful ;  among  the  young  and 
gay,  who  seldom  assuage  and  never  betray  their  thirst — 
this  is  one  of  the  most  wonderful  and  touching  facts  of 
life.  It  is  not  more  heat  that  is  needed,  but  more  light ; 
not  more  force,  but  a  wiser  direction  to  be  given  to  very 
real  energies  already  there, 


PEACE    BE    WITH    YOU.  II 

The  Address  which  follows  is  offered  as  a  humble  con- 
tribution to  this  problem,  and  in  the  hope  that  it  may 
help  some  who  are  "  seeking  Rest  and  finding  none  "  to  a 
firmer  footing  on  one  great,  solid,  simple  principle  which 
underlies  not  the  Christian  experiences  alone,  but  all  ex- 
periences, and  all  life. 

What  Christian  experience  wants  is  thread,  a  vertebral 
column,  method.  It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  there 
is  no  remedy  for  its  unevenness  and  dishevelment,  or  that 
the  remedy  is  a  secret.  The  idea,  also,  that  some  few 
men,  by  happy  chance  or  happier  temperament,  have 
been  given  the  secret — as  if  there  were  some  sort  of 
knack  or  trick  of  it — is  wholly  incredible.  Religion  must 
ripen  its  fruit  for  every  temperament ;  and  the  way  even 
into  its  highest  heights  must  be  by  a  gateway  through 
which  the  peoples  of  the  world  may  pass. 

I  shall  try  to  lead  up  to  this  gateway  by  a  very  familiar 
path.  But  as  that  path  is  strangely  unfrequented,  and 
even  unknown,  where  it  passes  into  the  religious  sphere,  I 
must  dwell  for  a  moment  on  the  commonest  of  common- 
places. 


EFFECTS   REQUIRE   CAUSES. 

NOTHING  that  happens  in  the  world  happens  by  chance. 
God  is  a  God  of  order.  Everything  is  arranged  upon 
definite  principles,  and  never  at  random.  The  world, 
even  the  religious  world,  is  governed  by  law.  Character 
is  governed  by  law.  Happiness  is  governed  by  law.  The 
Christian  experiences  ar§  governed  by  law.  Men,  for- 
getting this,  expect  Rest,  Joy,  Peace,  Faith  to  drop  into 
their  souls  from  the  air  like  snow  or  rain.  But  in  point  of 
fact  they  do  not  do  so ;  and  if  they  did  they  would  no  less 
have  their  origin  in  previous  activities  and  be  controlled 
by  natural  laws.  Rain  and  snow  do  drop  from  the  air, 
but  not  without  a  long  previous  history.  They  are  the 
mature  effects  of  former  causes.  Equally  so  are  Rest, 
and  Peace,  and  Joy.  They,  too,  have  each  a  previous 
history.  Storms  and  winds  and  calms  are  not  accidents, 
but  are  brought  about  by  antecedent  circumstances.  Rest 
and  Peace  are  but  calms  in  man's  inward  nature,  and 
arise  through  causes  as  definite  and  as  inevitable. 

Realize  it  thoroughly :  it  is  a  methodical  not  an  acci- 
dental world.  If  a  housewife  turns  out  a  good  cake,  it 
is  the  result  of  a  sound  receipt,  carefully  applied.  She 
cannot  mix  the  assigned  ingredients  and  fire  them  for  the 
appropriate  time  without  producing  the  result.  It  is  not 
she  who  has  made  the  cake ;  it  is  nature.  She  brings  re- 
lated things  together ;  sets  causes  at  work  ;  these  causes 
bring  about  the  result.  She  is  not  a  creator,  but  an  in- 
termediary. She  does  not  expect  random  causes  to  pro- 


EFFECTS  REQUIRE  CAUSES.  13 

duce  specific  effects — random  ingredients  would  only 
.  produce  random  cakes.  So  it  is  in  the  making  of 
Christian  experiences.  Certain  lines  are  followed ;  cer- 
tain effects  are  the  result.  These  effects  cannot  but  be 
the  result.  But  the  result  can  never  take  place  without 
the  previous  cause.  To  expect  results  without  anteced- 
ents is  to  expect  cakes  without  ingredients.  That  impos- 
sibility is  precisely  the  almost  universal  expectation. 

Now  what  I  mainly  wish  to  do  is  to  help  you  firmly  to 
grasp  this  simple  principle  of  Cause  and  Effect  in  the 
spiritual  world.  And  instead  of  applying  the  principle 
generally  to  each  of  the  Christian  experiences  in  turn,  I 
shall  examine  its  application  to  one  in  some  little  detail. 
The  one  I  shall  select  is  Rest.  And  I  think  any  one 
who  follows  the  application  in  this  single  instance  will  be 
able  to  apply  it  for  himself  to  all  the  others. 

Take  such  a  sentence  as  this :  African  explorers  are 
subject  to  fevers  which  cause  restlessness  and  delirium. 
Note  the  expression,  "cause  restlessness."  Restlessness 
has  a  cause.  Clearly,  then,  any  one  who  wished  to  get  rid 
of  restlessness  would  proceed  at  once  to  deal  with  the 
cause.  If  that  were  not  removed,  a  doctor  might  pre- 
scribe a  hundred  things,  and  all  might  be  taken  in  turn, 
without  producing  the  least  effect.  Things  are  so  ar- 
ranged in  the  original  planning  of  the  world  that  certain 
effects  must  follow  certain  causes,  and  certain  causes 
must  be  abolished  before  certain  effects  can  be  removed. 
Certain  parts  of  Africa  are  inseparably  linked  with  the 
physical  experience  called  fever ;  this  fever  is  in  turn  in- 
fallibly linked  with  a  mental  experience  called  restlessness 
and  delirium.  To  abolish  the  mental  experience  the  rad- 
ical method  would  be  to  abolish  the  physical  experience. 


14  PAX    VOBISCUM. 

and  the  way  of  abolishing  the  physical  experience  would 
be  to  abolish  Africa,  or  to  cease  to  go  there.  Now  this 
holds  good  for  all  other  forms  of  Restlessness.  Every 
other  form  and  kind  of  Restlessness  in  the  world  has  a 
definite  cause,  and  the  particular  kind  of  Restlessness  can 
only  be  removed  by  removing  the  allotted  cause. 

All  this  is  also  true  of  Rest.  Restlessness  has  a  cause : 
must  not  Rest  have  a  cause?  Necessarily.  If  it  were  a 
chance  world  we  would  not  expect  this;  but,  being  a 
methodical  world,  it  cannot  be  otherwise.  Rest,  physical 
rest,  moral  rest,  spiritual  rest,  every  kind  of  rest  has  a 
cause,  as  certainly  as  restlessness.  Now  causes  are  dis- 
criminating. There  is  one  kind  of  cause  for  every  par- 
ticular effect,  and  no  other ;  and  if  one  particular  effect 
is  desired,  the  corresponding  cause  must  be  set  in  motion. 
It  is  no  use  proposing  finely  devised  schemes,  or  going 
through  general  pious  exercises  in  the  hope  that  somehow 
Rest  will  come.  The  Christian  life  is  not  casual  but 
causal.  All  nature  is  a  standing  protest  against  the  ab- 
surdity of  expecting  to  secure  spiritual  effects,  or  any 
effects,  without  the  employment  of  appropriate  causes. 
The  Great  Teacher  dealt  what  ought  to  have  been  the 
final  blow  to  this  infinite  irrelevancy  by  a  single  question, 
"  Do  men  gather  grapes  of  thorns  or  figs  of  thistles?  " 

Why,  then,  did  the  Great  Teacher  not  educate  His 
followers  fully?  Why  did  He  not  tell  us,  for  example, 
how  such  a  thing  as  Rest  might  be  obtained?  The  an- 
swer is,  that  He  did.  But  plainly,  explicitly,  in  so  many 
words?  Yes,  plainly,  explicitly,  in  so  many  words.  He 
assigned  Rest  to  its  cause,  in  words  with  which  each  of 
us  has  been  familiar  from  his  earliest  childhood. 

He  begins,  you  remember — for  you  at  once  know  the 


EFFECTS  REQUIRE  CAUSES.  15 

passage  I  refer  to — almost  as  if  Rest  could  be  had  without 
any  cause  :  "  Come  unto  me,"  He  says,  "  and  I  will  give 
you  Rest." 

Rest,  apparently,  was  a  favour  to  be  bestowed ;  men 
had  but  to  come  to  Him ;  He  would  give  it  to  every 
applicant.  But  the  next  sentence  takes  that  all  back. 
The  qualification,  indeed,  is  added  instantaneously.  For 
what  the  first  sentence  seemed  to  give  was  next  thing 
to  an  impossibility.  For  how,  in  a  literal  sense,  can 
Rest  be  given  ?  One  could  no  more  give  away  Rest  than 
he  could  give  away  Laughter.  We  speak  of  "  causing  " 
laughter,  which  we  can  do;  but  we  cannot  give  it  away. 
When  we  speak  of  giving  pain,  we  know  perfectly  well  we 
cannot  give  pain  away.  And  when  we  aim  at  giving 
pleasure,  all  that  we  do  is  to  arrange  a  set  of  circum- 
stances in  such  a  way  as  that  these  shall  cause  pleasure. 
Of  course  there  is  a  sense,  and  a  very  wonderful  sense,  in 
which  a  Great  Personality  breathes  upon  all  who  come 
within  its  influence  an  abiding  peace  and  trust.  Men 
can  be  to  other  men  as  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a 
thirsty  land.  Much  more  Christ ;  much  more  Christ  as 
Perfect  Man ;  much  more  still  as  Saviour  of  the  world. 
But  it  is  not  this  of  which  I  speak.  When  Christ  said 
He  would  give  men  Rest,  He  meant  simply  that  He 
would  put  them  in  the  way  of  it.  By  no  act  of  convey- 
ance would,  or  could,  He  make  over  His  own  Rest  to 
them.  He  could  give  them  His  receipt  for  it.  That  was 
all.  But  He  would  not  make  it  for  them  ;  for  one  thing, 
it  was  not  in  His  plan  to  make  it  for  them ;  for  another 
thing,  men  were  not  so  planned  that  it  could  be  made  for 
them  ;  and  for  yet  another  thing,  it  was  a  thousand  times 
better  that  they  should  make  it  for  themselves. 


l6  PAX   VOBISCUM. 

That  this  is  the  meaning  becomes  obvious  from  the 
wording  of  the  second  sentence :  "  Learn  of  Me  and  ye 
shall  find  Rest."  Rest,  that  is  to  say,  is  not  a  thing  that 
can  be  given,  but  a  thing  to  be  acquired.  It  comes  not 
by  an  act,  but  by  a  process.  It  is  not  to  be  found  in  a 
happy  hour,  as  one  finds  a  treasure ;  but  slowly,  as  one 
finds  knowledge.  It  could  indeed  be  no  more  found  in 
a  moment  than  could  knowledge.  A  soil  has  to  be  pre- 
pared for  it.  Like  a  fine  fruit,  it  will  grow  in  one  climate 
and  not  in  another ;  at  one  altitude  and  not  at  another. 
Like  all  growths  it  will  have  an  orderly  development  and 
mature  by  slow  degrees. 

The  nature  of  this  slow  process  Christ  clearly  defines 
when  He  says  we  are  to  achieve  Rest  by  learning. 
"  Learn  of  Me,"  He  says,  "  and  ye  shall  find  rest  to  your 
souls."  Now  consider  the  extraordinary  originality  of  this 
utterance.  How  novel  the  connection  between  these  two 
words,  "Learn"  and  "Rest"?  How  few  of  us  have 
ever  associated  them — ever  thought  that  Rest  was  a  thing 
to  be  learned ;  ever  laid  ourselves  out  for  it  as  we  would 
to  learn  a  language ;  ever  practised  it  as  we  would  prac- 
tise the  violin?  Does  it  not  show  how  entirely  new 
Christ's  teaching  still  is  to  the  world,  that  so  old  and 
threadbare  an  aphorism  should  still  be  so  little  applied? 
The  last  thing  most  of  us  would  have  thought  of  would 
have  been  to  associate  Rest  with  Work. 

What  must  one  work  at?  What  is  that  which  if  duly 
learned  will  find  the  soul  of  man  in  Rest?  Christ  an- 
swers without  the  least  hesitation.  He  specifies  two 
things — Meekness  and  Lowliness.  "  Learn  of  Me,"  He 
says,  "  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart."  Now  these 
two  things  are  not  chosen  at  random.  To  these  accom- 


EFFECTS    REQUIRE    CAUSES.  17 

plishments,  in  a  special  way,  Rest  is  attached.  Learn 
these,  in  short,  and  you  have  already  found  Rest.  These 
as  they  stand  are  direct  causes  of  Rest ;  will  produce  it 
at  once ;  cannot  but  produce  it  at  once.  And  if  you 
think  for  a  single  moment,  you  will  see  how  this  is  neces- 
sarily so,  for  causes  are  never  arbitrary,  and  the  connec- 
tion between  antecedent  and  consequent  here  and  every- 
where lies  deep  in  the  nature  of  things. 

What  is  the  connection,  then?  I  answer  by  a  further 
question.  What  are  the  chief  causes  of  Unrest  ?  If  you 
know  yourself,  you  will  answer  Pride,  Selfishness,  Ambi- 
tion. As  you  look  back  upon  the  past  years  of  your  life, 
is  it  not  true  that  its  unhappiness  has  chiefly  come  from 
the  succession  of  personal  mortifications  and  almost 
trivial  disappointments  which  the  intercourse  of  life  has 
brought  you?  Great  trials  come  at  lengthened  intervals, 
and  we  rise  to  breast  them ;  but  it  is  the  petty  friction  of 
our  every-day  life  with  one  another,  the  jar  of  business  or 
of  work,  the  discord  of  the  domestic  circle,  the  collapse 
of  our  ambition,  the  crossing  of  our  will  or  the  taking 
down  of  our  conceit,  which  make  inward  peace  impossi- 
ble. Wounded  vanity,  then,  disappointed  hopes,  unsatis- 
fied selfishness — these  are  the  old,  vulgar,  universal 
sources  of  man's  unrest. 

Now  it  is  obvious  why  Christ  pointed  out  as  the  two 
chief  objects  for  attainment  the  exact  opposites  of  these. 
To  Meekness  and  Lpwliness  these  things  simply  do  not 
exist.  They  cure  unrest  by  making  it  impossible.  These 
remedies  do  not  trifle  with  surface  symptoms ;  they  strike 
at  once  at  removing  causes.  The  ceaseless  chagrin  of 
a  self-centred  life  can  be  removed  at  once  by  learn- 
ing Meekness  and  Lowliness  of  heart.  He  who  learns 


1 8  PAX    VOBISCUM. 

them  is  forever  proof  against  it.  He  lives  henceforth  a 
charmed  life.  Christianity  is  a  fine  inoculation,  a  trans- 
fusion of  healthy  blood  into  an  anaemic  or  poisoned 
soul.  No  fever  can  attack  a  perfectly  sound  body ;  no 
fever  of  unrest  can  disturb  a  soul  which  has  breathed  the 
air  or  learned  the  ways  of  Christ.  Men  sigh  for  the 
wings  of  a  dove  that  they  may  fly  away  and  be  at  Rest. 
But  flying  away  will  not  help  us.  "The  Kingdom  of 
God  is  within  you"  We  aspire  to  the  top  to  look  for 
Rest ;  it  lies  at  the  bottom.  Water  rests  only  when  it 
gets  to  the  lowest  place.  So  do  men.  Hence,  be  lowly. 
The  man  who  has  no  opinion  of  himself  at  all  can  never 
be  hurt  if  others  do  not  acknowledge  him.  Hence,  be 
meek.  He  who  is  without  expectation  cannot  fret  if 
nothing  comes  to  him.  It  is  self-evident  that  these  things 
are  so.  The  lowly  man  and  the  meek  man  are  really 
above  all  other  men,  above  all  other  things.  They  dom- 
inate the  world  because  they  do  not  care  for  it.  The 
miser  does  not  possess  gold,  gold  possesses  him.  But 
the  meek  possess  it.  "  The  meek,"  said  Christ,  "  inherit 
the  earth."  They  do  not  buy  it ;  they  do  not  conquer 
it ;  but  they  inherit  it. 

There  are  people  who  go  about  the  world  looking  out 
for  slights,  and  they  are  necessarily  miserable,  for  they 
find  them  at  every  turn — especially  the  imaginary  ones. 
One  has  the  same  pity  for  such  men  as  for  the  very  poor. 
They  are  the  morally  illiterate.  They  have  had  no  real  edu- 
cation, for  they  have  never  learned  how  to  live.  Few  men 
know  how  to  live.  We  grow  up  at  random,  carrying  into 
mature  life  the  merely  animal  methods  and  motives  which 
we  had  as  little  children.  And  it  does  not  occur  to  us 
that  all  this  must  be  changed  ;  that  much  of  it  must  be 


EFFECTS  REQUIRE  CAUSES.  19 

reversed ;  that  life  is  the  finest  of  the  Fine  Arts ;  that  it 
has  to  be  learned  with  lifelong  patience,  and  that  the 
years  of  our  pilgrimage  are  all  too  short  to  master  it  tri- 
umphantly. 

Yet  this  is  what  Christianity  is  for — to  teach  men  the 
Art  of  Life.  And  its  whole  curriculum  lies  in  one  word 
— "  Learn  of  me."  Unlike  most  education,  this  is  almost 
purely  personal ;  it  is  not  to  be  had  from  books  or  lect- 
ures or  creeds  or  doctrines.  It  is  a  study  from  the  life. 
Christ  never  said  much  in  mere  words  about  the  Christian 
graces.  He  lived  them,  He  was  them.  Yet  we  do  not 
merely  copy  Him.  We  learn  His  art  by  living  with 
Him,  like  the  old  apprentices  with  their  masters. 

Now  we  understand  it  all?  Christ's  invitation  to  the 
weary  and  heavy-laden  is  a  call  to  begin  life  over  again 
upon  a  new  principle — upon  His  own  principle.  "  Watch 
My  way  of  doing  things,"  He  says.  "  Follow  Me.  Take 
life  as  I  take  it.  Be  meek  and  lowly  and  you  will  find 
Rest." 

I  do  not  say,  remember,  that  the  Christian  life  to  every 
man,  or  to  any  man,  can  be  a  bed  of  roses.  No  educa- 
tional process  can  be  this.  And  perhaps  if  some  men 
knew  how  much  was  involved  in  the  simple  "  learn  "  of 
Christ,  they  would  not  enter  His  school  with  so  irrespon- 
sible a  heart.  For  there  is  not  only  much  to  learn,  but 
much  to  unlearn.  Many  men  never  go  to  this  school  at 
all  till  their  disposition  is  already  half  ruined  and  char- 
acter has  taken  on  its  fatal  set.  To  learn  arithmetic  is  diffi- 
cult at  fifty — much  more  to  learn  Christianity.  To  learn 
simply  what  it  is  to  be  meek  and  lowly,  in  the  case  of  one 
who  has  had  no  lessons  in  that  in  childhood,  may  cost 
him  half  of  what  he  values  most  on  earth.  Do  we  realize, 


20  PAX   VOBISCUM. 

for  instance,  that  the  way  of  teaching  humility  is  gener- 
ally by  humiliation?  There  is  probably  no  other  school 
for  it.  When  a  man  enters  himself  as  a  pupil  in  such  a 
school  it  means  a  very  great  thing.  There  is  much  Rest 
there,  but  there  is  also  much  Work. 

I  should  be  wrong,  even  though  my  theme  is  the 
brighter  side,  to  ignore  the  cross  and  minimise  the  cost. 
Only  it  gives  to  the  cross  a  more  definite  meaning,  and  a 
rarer  value,  to  connect  it  thus  directly  and  causally  with  the 
growth  of  the  inner  life.  Our  platitudes  on  the  "  benefits 
of  affliction  "  are  usually  about  as  vague  as  our  theories  of 
Christian  Experience.  "  Somehow,"  we  believe  affliction 
does  us  good.  But  it  is  not  a  question  of  "  Somehow." 
The  result  is  definite,  calculable,  necessary.  It  is  under  the 
strictest  law  of  cause  and  effect.  The  first  effect  of  losing 
one's  fortune,  for  instance,  is  humiliation ;  and  the  effect 
of  humiliation,  as  we  have  just  seen,  is  to  make  one  hum- 
ble ;  and  the  effect  of  being  humble  is  to  produce  Rest. 
It  is  a  roundabout  way,  apparently,  of  producing  Rest ; 
but  Nature  generally  works  by  circular  processes ;  and 
it  is  not  certain  that  there  is  any  other  way  of  becoming 
humble,  or  of  finding  Rest.  If  a  man  could  make  him- 
self humble  to  order,  it  might  simplify  matters,  but  we  do 
not  find  that  this  happens.  Hence  we  must  all  go  through 
the  mill.  Hence  death,  death  to  the  lower  self,  is  the 
nearest  gate  and  the  quickest  road  to  life. 

Yet  this  is  only  half  the  truth.  Christ's  life  outwardly 
was  one  of  the  most  troubled  lives  that  was  ever  lived : 
Tempest  and  tumult,  tumult  and  tempest,  the  waves 
breaking  over  it  all  the  time  till  the  worn  body  was  laid 
in  the  grave.  But  the  inner  life  was  a  sea  of  glass.  The 
great  calm  was  always  there.  At  any  moment  you  might 


EFFECTS    REQUIRE    CAUSES.  21 

have  gone  to  Him  and  found  Rest.  And  even  when  the 
bloodhounds  were  dogging  Him  in  the  streets  of  Jerusa- 
lem, He  turned  to  His  disciples  and  offered  them,  as  a  last 
legacy,  "  My  peace."  Nothing  ever  for  a  moment  broke 
the  serenity  of  Christ's  life  on  earth.  Misfortune  could  not 
reach  Him  ;  He  had  no  fortune.  Food,  raiment,  money 
— fountain-heads  of  half  the  world's  weariness — He  simply 
did  not  care  for ;  they  played  no  part  in  His  life ;  He  "  took 
no  thought  "  for  them.  It  was  impossible  to  affect  Him  by 
lowering  His  reputation;  He  had  already  made  Himself 
of  no  reputation.  He  was  dumb  before  insult.  When 
He  was  reviled  He  reviled  not  again.  In  fact,  there  was 
nothing  that  the  world  could  do  to  Him  that  could  ruffle 
the  surface  of  His  spirit. 

Such  living,  as  mere  living,  is  altogether  unique.  It  is 
only  when  we  see  what  it  was  in  Him  that  we  can  know 
what  the  word  Rest  means.  It  lies  not  in  emotions,  nor 
in  the  absence  of  emotions.  It  is  not  a  hallowed  feeling 
that  comes  over  us  in  church.  It  is  not  something  that 
the  preacher  has  in  his  voice.  It  is  not  in  nature,  or  in 
poetry,  or  in  music — though  in  all  these  there  is  soothing. 
It  is  the  mind  at  leisure  from  itself.  It  is  the  perfect 
poise  of  the  soul ;  the  absolute  adjustment  of  the  inward 
man  to  the  stress  of  all  outward  things ;  the  preparedness 
against  every  emergency ;  the  stability  of  assured  convic- 
tions ;  the  eternal  calm  of  an  invulnerable  faith ;  the  re- 
pose of  a  heart  set  deep  in  God.  It  is  the  mood  of  the 
man  who  says,  with  Browning,  "  God's  in  His  Heaven, 
all's  well  with  the  world." 

Two  painters  each  painted  a  picture  to  illustrate  his 
conception  of  rest.  The  first  chose  for  his  scene  a  still, 
lone  lake  among  the  far-off  mountains.  The  second 


22  PAX    VOBISCUM. 

threw  on  his  canvas  a  thundering  waterfall,  with  a  fragile 
birch-tree  bending  over  the  foam ;  at  the  fork  of  a 
branch,  almost  wet  with  the  cataract's  spray,  a  robin  sat 
on  its  nest.  The  first  was  only  Stagnation,;  the  last  was 
Rest.  For  in  Rest  there  are  always  two  elements — tran- 
quillity and  energy ;  silence  and  turbulence ;  creation  and 
destruction  ;  fearlessness  and  fearfulness.  This  it  was  in 
Christ. 

It  is  quite  plain  from  all  this  that  whatever  else  He 
claimed  to  be  or  to  do,  He  at  least  knew  how  to  live. 
All  this  is  the  perfection  of  living,  of  living  in  the  mere 
sense  of  passing  through  the  world  in  the  best  way. 
Hence  His  anxiety  to  communicate  His  idea  of  life  to 
others.  He  came,  He  said,  to  give  men  life,  true  life,  a 
more  abundant  life  than  they  were  living  ;  "  the  life,"  as 
the  fine  phrase  in  the  Revised  Version  has  it,  "  that  is  life 
indeed."  This  is  what  He  himself  possessed,  and  it  was 
this  which  He  offers  to  all  mankind.  And  hence  His 
direct  appeal  for  all  to  come  to  Him  who  had  not  made 
much  of  life,  who  were  weary  and  heavy-laden.  These 
He  would  teach  His  secret.  They,  also,  should  know 
"  the  life  that  is  life  indeed." 


WHAT  YOKES  ARE  FOR. 

THERE  is  still  one  doubt  to  clear  up.  After  the  state- 
ment, "  Learn  of  Me,"  Christ  throws  in  the  disconcerting 
qualification,  "Take  My  yoke  upon  you  and  learn  of  Me." 
Why,  if  all  this  be  true,  does  He  call  it  a  yoke?  Whyt 
while  professing  to  give  Rest,  does  He  with  the  nexS 
breath  whisper  "burden"!  Is  the  Christian  life,  aftf/ 
all,  what  its  enemies  take  it  for — an  additional  weight  t<j 
the  already  great  woe  of  life,  some  extra  punctiliousness, 
about  duty,  some  painful  devotion  to  observances,  oome 
heavy  restriction  and  trammelling  of  all  that  is  joyous 
and  free  in  the  world?  Is  life  not  hard  and  sorrowful 
enough  without  being  fettered  with  yet  another  yoke? 

It  is  astounding  how  so  glaring  a  misunderstanding  of 
this  plain  sentence  should  ever  have  passed  into  currency. 
Did  you  ever  stop  to  ask  what  a  yoke  is  really  for?  Is 
it  to  be  a  burden  to  the  animal  which  wears  it?  It  is 
just  the  opposite.  It  is  to  make  its  burden  light.  At- 
tached to  the  oxen  in  any  other  way  than  by  a  yoke,  the 
plough  would  be  intolerable.  Worked  by  means  of  a 
yoke,  it  is  light.  A  yoke  is  not  an  instrument  of  torture  ; 
it  is  an  instrument  of  mercy.  It  is  not  a  malicious  con- 
trivance for  making  work  hard ;  it  is  a  gentle  device  to 
make  hard  labour  light.  It  is  not  meant  to  give  pain,  but 
to  save  pain.  And  yet  men  speak  of  the  yoke  of  Christ 
as  if  it  were  a  slavery,  and  look  upon  those  who  wear  it 
as  objects  of  compassion.  For  generations  we  have  had 
homilies  on  "The  Yoke  of  Christ,"  some  delighting  in 


24  PAX    VOBISCUM. 

portraying  its  narrow  exactions ;  some  seeking  in  these 
exactions  the  marks  of  its  divinity  ;  others  apologising  for 
it,  and  toning  it  down ;  still  others  assuring  us  that,  al- 
though it  be  very  bad,  it  is  not  to  be  compared  with  the 
positive  blessings  of  Christianity.  How  many,  especially 
among  the  young,  has  this  one  mistaken  phrase  driven 
forever  away  from  the  kingdom  of  God?  Instead  of 
making  Christ  attractive,  it  makes  Him  out  a  taskmaster, 
narrowing  life  by  petty  restrictions,  calling  for  self-denial 
where  none  is  necessary,  making  misery  a  virtue  under 
the  plea  that  it  is  the  yoke  of  Christ,  and  happiness  crim- 
inal because  it  now  and  then  evades  it.  According  to 
this  conception,  Christians  are  at  best  the  victims  of  a  de- 
pressing fate  ;  their  life  is  a  penance  ;  and  their  hope  for 
the  next  world  purchased  by  a  slow  martyrdom  in  this. 

The  mistake  has  arisen  from  taking  the  word  "  yoke  " 
here  in  the  same  sense  as  in  the  expressions  "  under  the 
yoke,"  or  "  wear  the  yoke  in  his  youth."  But  in  Christ's 
illustration  it  is  not  thejugum  of  the  Roman  soldier,  but 
the  simple  "  harness  "  or  "  ox-collar  "  of  the  Eastern  peas- 
ant. It  is  the  literal  wooden  yoke  which  He,  with  His 
own  hands  in  the  carpenter  shop,  had  probably  often 
made.  He  knew  the  difference  between  a  smooth  yoke 
and  a  rough  one,  a  bad  fit  and  a  good  fit ;  the  difference 
also  it  made  to  the  patient  animal  which  had  to  wear  it. 
The  rough  yoke  galled,  and  the  burden  was  heavy ;  the 
smooth  yoke  caused  no  pain,  and  the  load  was  lightly 
drawn.  The  badly  fitted  harness  was  a  misery ;  the  well- 
fitted  collar  was  "  easy." 

And  what  was  the  "burden"?  It  was  not  some  spe- 
cial burden  laid  upon  the  Christian,  some  unique  infliction 
that  they  alone  must  bear.  It  was  what  all  men  bear. 


WHAT   YOKES    ARE    FOR.  25 

It  was  simply  life,  human  life  itself,  the  general  burden  of 
life  which  all  must  carry  with  them  from  the  cradle  to 
the  grave.  Christ  saw  that  men  took  life  painfully.  To 
some  it  was  a  weariness,  to  others  a  failure,  to  many  a 
tragedy,  to  all  a  struggle  and  a  pain.  How  to  carry  this 
burden  of  life  had  been  the  whole  world's  problem.  It 
is  still  the  whole  world's  problem.  And  here  is  Christ's 
solution :  "  Carry  it  as  I  do.  Take  life  as  I  take  it. 
Look  at  it  from  My  point  of  view.  Interpret  it  upon  My 
principles.  Take  My  yoke  and  learn  of  Me,  and  you  will 
find  it  easy.  For  My  yoke  is  easy,  works  easily,  sits  right 
upon  the  shoulders,  and  therefore  My  burden  is  light." 

There  is  no  suggestion  here  that  religion  will  absolve 
any  man  from  bearing  burdens.  That  would  be  to  ab- 
solve him  from  living,  since  it  is  life  itself  that  is  the 
burden.  What  Christianity  does  propose  is  to  make  it 
tolerable.  Christ's  yoke  is  simply  His  secret  for  the  al- 
leviation of  human  life,  His  prescription  for  the  best  and 
happiest  method  of  living.  Men  harness  themselves  to 
the  work  and  stress  of  the  world  in  clumsy  and  unnatural 
ways.  The  harness  they  put  on  is  antiquated.  A  rough, 
ill-fitted  collar  at  the  best,  they  make  its  strain  and  fric- 
tion past  enduring,  by  placing  it  where  the  neck  is  most 
sensitive  ;  and  by  mere  continuous  irritation  this  sensitive- 
ness increases  until  the  whole  nature  is  quick  and  sore. 

This  is  the  origin,  among  other  things,  of  a  disease 
called  "  touchiness  " — a  disease  which,  in  spite  of  its  in- 
nocent name,  is  one  of  the  gravest  sources  of  restlessness 
in  the  world.  Touchiness,  when  it  becomes  chronic,  is  a 
morbid  condition  of  the  inward  disposition.  It  is  self- 
love  inflamed  to  the  acute  point ;  conceit,  with  a  hair- 
trigger.  The  cure  is  to  shift  the  yoke  to  some  other 


26  PAX   VOBISCUM. 

place ;  to  let  men  and  things  touch  us  through  some  new 
and  perhaps  as  yet  unused  part  of  our  nature ;  to  become 
meek  and  lowly  in  heart  while  the  old  nature  is  becoming 
numb  from  want  of  use.  It  is  the  beautiful  work  of 
Christianity  everywhere  to  adjust  the  burden  of  life  to 
those  who  bear  it,  and  them  to  it.  It  has  a  perfectly 
miraculous  gift  of  healing.  Without  doing  any  violence 
to  human  nature  it  sets  it  right  with  life,  harmonizing  it 
with  all  surrounding  things,  and  restoring  those  who  are 
jaded  with  the  fatigue  and  dust  of  the  world  to  a  new 
grace  of  living.  In  the  mere  matter  of  altering  the  per- 
spective of  life  and  changing  the  proportions  of  things, 
its  function  in  lightening  the  care  of  man  is  altogether  its 
own.  The  weight  of  a  load  depends  upon  the  attraction  of 
the  earth.  But  suppose  the  attraction  of  the  earth  were 
removed?  A  ton  on  some  other  planet,  where  the  attrac- 
tion of  gravity  is  less,  does  not  weigh  half  a  ton.  Now 
Christianity  removes  the  attraction  of  the  earth ;  and  this  is 
one  way  in  which  it  diminishes  men's  burden.  It  makes 
them  citizens  of  another  world.  What  was  a  ton  yester- 
day is  not  half  a  ton  to-day.  So  without  changing  one's 
circumstances,  merely  by  offering  a  wider  horizon  and  a 
different  standard,  it  alters  the  whole  aspect  of  the  world. 
Christianity  as  Christ  taught  is  the  truest  philosophy  of 
life  ever  spoken.  But  let  us  be  quite  sure  when  we  speak 
of  Christianity  that  we  mean  Christ's  Christianity.  Other 
versions  are  either  caricatures,  or  exaggerations,  or  mis- 
understandings, or  shortsighted  and  surface  readings. 
For  the  most  part  their  attainment  is  hopeless  and  the 
results  wretched.  But  I  care  not  who  the  person  is,  or 
through  what  vale  of  tears  he  has  passed,  or  is  about  to 
pass,  there  is  a  new  life  for  him  along  this  path. 


HOW   FRUITS   GROW. 

^  Rest  my  subject,  there  are  other  things  I  should 
wish  to  say  about  it,  and  other  kinds  of  Rest  of  which  I 
shouid  like  to  speak.  But  that  is  not  my  subject.  My 
theme  »&.  that  the  Christian  experiences  are  not  the  work 
of  magic,  but  come  under  the  law  of  Cause  and  Effect. 
And  I  hats  chosen  Rest  only  as  a  single  illustration  of 
the  working  of  that  principle.  If  there  were  time  I  might 
next  run  ovei  all  the  Christian  experiences  in  turn,  and 
show  how  the  same  wide  law  applies  to  each.  But  I 
think  it  may  serve  the  better  purpose  if  I  leave  this 
further  exercise  to  /ourselves.  I  know  no  Bible  study 
that  you  will  find  more  full  of  fruit,  or  which  will  take 
you  nearer  to  the  ways  of  God,  or  make  the  Christian 
life  itself  more  solid  or  more  sure.  I  shall  add  only  a 
single  other  illustration  of  what  I  mean,  before  I  close. 

Where  does  Joy  come  from?  I  knew  a  Sunday  scholar 
whose  conception  of  Joy  was  liiat  it  was  a  thing  made  in 
lumps  and  kept  somewhere  in  Heaven,  and  that  when 
people  prayed  for  it,  pieces  were  somehow  let  down  and 
fitted  into  their  souls.  I  am  not  sure  that  views  as  gross 
and  material  are  not  often  held  by  people  who  ought  to 
be  wiser.  In  reality,  Joy  is  as  much  a  matter  of  Cause 
and  Effect  as  pain.  No  one  can  get  Joy  by  merely  ask- 
ing for  it.  It  is  one  of  the  ripest  fruits  of  the  Christian 
life,  and,  like  all  fruits,  must  be  grown.  There  is  a  very 
clever  trick  in  India  called  the  mango-trick.  A  seed  hj 


28  PAX    VOBISCUM. 

put  in  the  ground  and  covered  up,  and  after  divers  incan- 
tations a  full-blown  mango-bush  appears  within  five  min- 
utes. I  never  met  any  one  who  knew  how  the  thing  was 
done,  but  I  never  met  any  one  who  believed  it  to  be  any- 
thing else  than  a  conjuring-trick.  The  world  is  pretty 
unanimous  now  in  its  belief  in  the  orderliness  of  Nature. 
Men  may  not  know  how  fruits  grow,  but  they  do  know 
that  they  cannot  grow  in  five  minutes.  Some  lives  have 
not  even  a  stalk  on  which  fruits  could  hang,  even  if  they 
did  grow  in  five  minutes.  Some  have  never  planted  one 
sound  seed  of  Joy  in  all  their  lives ;  and  others  who  may 
have  planted  a  germ  or  two  have  lived  so  little  in  sun- 
shine that  they  never  could  come  to  maturity. 

Whence,  then,  is  Joy?  Christ  put  His  teaching  upon 
this  subject  into  one  of  the  most  exquisite  of  His  para- 
bles. I  should  in  any  instance  have  appealed  to  His 
teaching  here,  as  in  the  case  of  Rest,  for  I  do  not  wish 
you  to  think  I  am  speaking  words  of  my  own.  But  it  so 
happens  that  He  has  dealt  with  it  in  words  of  unusual 
fulness. 

I  need  not  recall  the  whole  illustration.  It  is  the  para- 
ble of  the  Vine.  Did  you  ever  think  why  Christ  spoke 
that  parable?  He  did  not  merely  throw  it  into  space  as 
a  fine  illustration  of  general  truths.  It  was  not  simply  a 
statement  of  the  mystical  union,  and  the  doctrine  of  an 
indwelling  Christ.  It  was  lhat ;  but  it  was  more.  After 
He  had  said  it,  He  did  what  was  not  an  unusual  thing 
when  He  was  teaching  His  greatest  lessons.  He  turned 
to  the  disciples  and  said  He  would  tell  them  why  He  had 
spoken  it.  It  was  to  tell  them  how  to  get  Joy.  "These 
things  have  I  spoken  unto  you,"  He  said,  "that  My  Joy 
might  remain  in  you  and  that  your  Joy  might  be  full." 


HOW    FRUITS    GROW.  29 

It  was  a  purposed  and  deliberate  communication  of  His 
secret  of  Happiness. 

Go  back  over  these  verses,  then,  and  you  will  find  the 
Causes  of  this  Effect,  the  spring,  and  the  only  spring,  out 
of  which  true  Happiness  comes.  I  am  not  going  to  ana- 
lyse them  in  detail.  I  ask  you  to  enter  into  the  words 
for  yourselves.  Remember,  in  the  first  place,  that  the 
Vine  was  the  Eastern  symbol  of  Joy.  It  was  its  fruit  that 
made  glad  the  heart  of  man.  Yet,  however  innocent  that 
gladness — for  the  expressed  juice  of  the  grape  was  the 
common  drink  at  every  peasant's  board — the  gladness 
was  only  a  gross  and  passing  thing.  This  was  not  true 
happiness,  and  the  vine  of  the  Palestine  vineyards  was 
not  the  true  vine.  Christ  was  "  the  true  Vine."  Here, 
then,  is  the  ultimate  source  of  Joy.  Through  whatever 
media  it  reaches  us,  all  true  Joy  and  Gladness  find  their 
source  in  Christ.  By  this,  of  course,  is  not  meant  that 
the  actual  Joy  experienced  is  transferred  from  Christ's 
nature,  or  is  something  passed  on  from  Him  to  us.  What 
is  passed  on  is  His  method  of  getting  it.  There  is,  in- 
deed, a  sense  in  which  we  can  share  another's  joy  or  an- 
other's sorrow.  But  that  is  another  matter.  Christ  is 
the  source  of  Joy  to  men  in  the  sense  in  which  He  is  the 
source  of  Rest.  His  people  share  His  life,  and  therefore 
share  its  consequences,  and  one  of  these  is  Joy.  His 
method  of  living  is  one  that  in  the  nature  of  things  pro- 
duces Joy.  When  He  spoke  of  His  Joy  remaining  with 
us  He  meant  in  part  that  the  causes  which  produced  it 
should  continue  to  act.  His  followers,  that  is  to  say,  by 
repeating  His  life  would  experience  its  accompaniments. 
His  Joy,  His  kind  of  Joy,  would  remain  with  them. 

The  medium  through  which  this  Joy  comes  is  next  ex- 


30  PAX   VOBISCUM. 

plained :  "  He  that  abideth  in  Me,  the  same  bringeth 
forth  much  fruit."  Fruit  first,  Joy  next ;  the  one  the 
cause  or  medium  of  the  other.  Fruit-bearing  is  the  nec- 
essary antecedent ;  Joy  both  the  necessary  consequent 
and  the  necessary  accompaniment.  It  lay  partly  in  the 
bearing  fruit,  partly  in  the  fellowship  which  made  that 
possible.  Partly,  that  is  to  say,  Joy  lay  in  mere  constant 
living  in  Christ's  presence,  with  all  that  that  implied  of 
peace,  of  shelter,  and  of  love ;  partly  in  the  influence  of 
that  Life  upon  rnind  and  character  and  will ;  and  partly 
in  the  inspiration  to  live  and  work  for  others,  with  all 
that  that  brings  of  self-riddance  and  Joy  in  others' 
gain.  All  these,  in  different  ways  and  at  different  times, 
are  sources  of  pure  Happiness.  Even  the  simplest  of 
them — to  do  good  to  other  people — is  an  instant  and  in- 
fallible specific.  There  is  no  mystery  about  Happiness 
whatever.  Put  in  the  right  ingredients  and  it  must  come 
out.  He  that  abideth  in  Him  will  bring  forth  much 
fruit ;  and  bringing  forth  much  fruit  is  Happiness.  The 
infallible  receipt  for  Happiness,  then,  is  to  do  good ;  and 
the  infallible  receipt  for  doing  good  is  to  abide  in  Christ. 
The  surest  proof  that  all  this  is  a  plain  matter  of  Cause 
and  Effect  is  that  men  may  try  every  other  conceivable 
way  of  finding  Happiness,  and  they  will  fail.  Only  the 
right  cause  in  each  case  can  produce  the  right  effect. 

Then  the  Christian  experiences  are  our  own  making. 
In  the  same  sense  in  which  grapes  are  our  own  making, 
and  no  more.  All  fruits  grow — whether  they  grow  in 
the  soil  or  in  the  soul ;  whether  they  are  the  fruits  of  the 
wild  grape  or  of  the  True  Vine.  No  man  can  make  things 
grow.  He  can  get  them  to  grow  by  arranging  all  the  cir- 
cumstances and  fulfilling  all  the  conditions.  But  the 


HOW    FRUITS    GROW.  31 

growing  is  done  by  God.  Causes  and  effects  are  eternal 
arrangements,  set  in  the  constitution  of  the  world ;  fixed 
beyond  man's  ordering.  What  man  can  do  is  to  place 
himself  in  the  midst  of  a  chain  of  sequences.  Thus  he 
can  get  things  to  grow :  thus  he  himself  can  grow.  But 
the  grower  is  the  Spirit  of  God. 

What  more  need  I  add  but  this — test  the  method  by 
experiment.  Do  not  imagine  that  you  have  got  these 
things  because  you  know  how  to  get  them.  As  well  try 
to  feed  upon  a  cookery  book.  But  I  think  I  can  promise 
that  if  you  try  in  this  simple  and  natural  way,  you  will 
not  fail.  Spend  the  time  you  have  spent  in  sighing  for 
fruits  in  fulfilling  the  conditions  of  their  growth.  The 
fruits  will  come,  must  come.  We  have  hitherto  paid  im- 
mense attention  to  effects,  to  the  mere  experiences  them- 
selves ;  we  have  described  them,  extolled  them,  advised 
them,  prayed  for  them — done  everything  but  find  out 
what  caused  them.  Henceforth  let  us  deal  with  causes. 
"To  be,"  says  Lotze,  "is  to  be  in  relations."  About 
every  other  method  of  living  the  Christian  life  there  is  an 
uncertainty.  About  every  other  method  of  acquiring  the 
Christian  experiences  there  is  a  "perhaps."  But  in  so  far 
as  this  method  is  the  way  of  nature,  it  cannot  fail.  Its 
guarantee  is  the  laws  of  the  universe,  and  these  are  "  the 
Hands  of  the  Living  God." 


33  PAX  VOBISCUM. 


THE   TRUE   VINE. 

"I  AM  the  true  vine,  and  my  Father  is  the  husband- 
man. Every  branch  in  me  that  beareth  not  fruit  he 
taketh  away:  and  every  branch  that  beareth  fruit,  he 
purgeth  it,  that  it  may  bring  forth  more  fruit.  Now  ye 
are  clean  through  the  word  which  I  have  spoken  unto 
you.  Abide  in  me,  and  I  in  you.  As  the  branch  cannot 
bear  fruit  of  itself,  except  it  abide  in  the  vine ;  no  more 
can  ye,  except  ye  abide  in  me.  I  am  the  vine,  ye  are 
the  branches :  He  that  abideth  in  me,  and  I  in  him,  the 
same  bringeth  forth  much  fruit :  for  without  me  ye  can 
do  nothing.  If  a  man  abide  not  in  me,  he  is  cast  forth 
as  a  branch,  and  is  withered ;  and  men  gather  them,  and 
cast  them  into  the  fire,  and  they  are  burned.  If  ye  abide 
in  me,  and  my  word  abide  in  you,  ye  shall  ask  what  ye 
will,  and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you.  Herein  is  my  Father 
glorified,  that  ye  bear  much  fruit ;  so  ye  shall  be  my 
disciples.  As  the  Father  hath  loved  me,  so  have  I  loved 
you :  continue  ye  in  my  love.  If  ye  keep  my  command- 
ments, ye  shall  abide  in  my  love ;  even  as  I  have  kept 
my  Father's  commandments,  and  abide  in  his  love. 
These  things  have  I  spoken  unto  you,  that  my  joy  might 
remain  in  you,  and  that  your  joy  might  be  full." 


THE    END. 


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